278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



He Carefully Tells an Inquirer About Producing 

 Extracted Honey 



"The tide in beekeeping seems to be 

 changing from that of section to extracted 

 honey. Be kind enough to give us some- 

 thing in the May number of Gleanings 

 about working for extracted honey, so that 

 even the novice can make a success of it." 



The work in early spring is little if any 

 different when working for extracted honey 

 than for section. All hives should be kept 

 as tight as possible to economize the heat 

 generated by the bees. Then each colony 

 should have stores enough to last the colony 

 without scrimping till the first flowers yield 

 nectar. This last is where many beekeepers 

 ' ' fall down. ' ' Fifteen to 20 pounds is none 

 too much to allow from the time of the 

 .'irst flight in March or April to the time 

 of fruit bloom, as rapid brood-rearing calls 

 for much honey. 



With apple bloom, all fairly populous colo- 

 nies should have a queen-excluder j^ut on the 

 hive, and on this a hive of combs. If these 

 combs contain ]0 to 15 pounds of stores, so 

 much the better, for, should this bloom fail 

 to give the bees more than a living (as is 

 often the case), the honey given will carry 

 them over in good condition till the clover 

 bloom. As soon as the lower hive is pretty 

 well filled with brood, two combs from the 

 same may bo set in the upper one, taking 

 from the upper hive two nearly empty combs 

 to replace those removed from below. A 

 week later three or four frames of brood may 

 be exchanged in the same way. Thus rous- 

 ing colonies may be obtained by the time 

 ^he clover begins to bloom, witnout many of 

 the colonics haA'ing any desire to s^varm. 



Colonies tl;at have not yet arrived at suf- 

 ficient strength to warrant one's putting a 

 hive of combs on top, may safely be -inited 

 at this season of the year by smoking and 

 jarring in the dark of the evening, and then 

 placing one of the hives on top of the other, 

 with nothing between. The smoking and 

 -arring 'cause them to mark their location 

 anew in the morning. If one queen is su- 

 perior, kill the other; if not, let the bees 

 manage the matter. 



If increase is wanted, this is easily made 

 by setting off one of the upper hives in which 

 we have set four or five frames of brood a 

 iveek or two previous, giving each a queen 

 cell nearly ripe about 6 P. M. and doing the 

 setting off on a new stand in the twilight of 

 the same day. 



It is best to have plenty of extracting 

 combs, and not let the bees run short of 

 room; otherwise swarming may be the re- 

 sult. Queen-excluding honey-boards simplify 

 the necessary work. If we want to secure 

 the greatest number of pounds, we can ex- 

 tract w'lien the liouev in tlie fi-.imes is about 



three-fourths capped over, as it is usually 

 ripe enough at that stage to extract; but it 

 is better to tier up and leave it on the hives 

 until the end of the season. 



In localities where there are two crops or 

 more in a year, a light-colored, an amber, 

 and a dark, with a dearth between, it is 

 better to keep the two crops separate, by re- 

 moving the light honey just before the other 

 ilow is beginning. In the hot weather usual- 

 ly prevailing in July and August, honey will 

 soon ripen in the hive, and may be extracted 

 when the combs are not more than half seal- 

 ed over. At the end of the dark or fall flow 

 it is usually cool to cold weather, and only 

 the capped-over combs should be extracted 

 unless we have a cheap home trade or can 

 sell for manufacturing purposes. 



Sell none but well-ripened honey of any 

 color or flavor for table use, if you would 

 build up and hold a profitable trade. In this 

 way you will get a trade that pays. It is not 

 itecessavy that honey be mild in flavor and 

 white in color to be good. Many customers 

 prefer good, thick, well-ripened buckwheat 

 or goldenrod honey to that from clover or 

 basswood. Some 35 years ago an old aunt 

 came to see us and I took special pains to 

 have some exceedingly thick basswood ex- 

 tracted honey on the taVjle, as we had pro- 

 nounced it the "very best ever." I noted 

 that she ate sparingly of it. Presently she 

 said, ' '' Haven 't you got some of that good, 

 old, black, buckwheat honey? This white 

 honey hasn 't got any taste to it but sweet. ' ' 



In taking honey from the hives, it pays 

 well to have some bee-escape boards. I have 

 tried most of the many kinds of escapes as 

 they have been brought before the public, 

 but so far consider the Porter the best. 

 Put them in at any time when you wish to 

 remove an upper story, and if there is no 

 brood or queen above them, the upper stories 

 will usually be practically free of bees in 

 from 24 to 48 hours. Do not leave these 

 boards on very long after the upper stories 

 have been removed. Otherwise the bees are 

 liable to plaster the inside of the escapes 

 with propolis which makes the escape use- 

 less till the same is removed. 



Extracting from the brood-chamber is sel- 

 dom necessary or advisable, if good manage- 

 ment is used in supplying upper stories of 

 combs before those already on are crowde<l 

 with honey. A small room made tight and 

 warm by lining with heavy building-paper, 

 lapping the pajior well, and tacking lath 

 over the joints makes a good jdace for ex- 

 tracting, either in summer or winter. If the 

 weather is cool or cold, pile the supers of 

 honey on a scaffolding, about head-height 

 if possible, and heat the room to a tempera- 

 ture of 90 to 95 degrees from 18 to 24 hours, 

 according to the length of time the honey 

 has bean exposed to the low temperature.- 

 Most honcv larelv candies in the comb, and 



